Wilder snagged me around the waist and pulled me to his side. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Feel better, big guy?”
He grunted, but his woodsy scent brightened as we headed inside the bakery.
53
Wilder
After a year of livingin Starlight Grove, I’d successfully avoided all of their almost weekly festivals. Well, except for last year’s Easter egg hunt, when the fire department had been called after Easton brought dozens of plastic swords and organized a battle for the eggs resulting in a small fire, two children stuck in trees, and a number of lacerations requiring first aid.
The alpha in question was currently wearing an apron as he weighed Felix and Blossom in his hands to see if he could juggle them.
“Don’t ruin their outfits!” Lucy shouted across the store. She caught my eye and blew me a kiss. My cheeks heated.
Felix and Blossom were both wearing hats in the shape of cakes. When we first got here, Lucy had set up a whole photo shoot with the two of them, using the colorful bakery walls as her backdrop and a tower of desserts as props. Desserts that somehow kept disappearing, although no one would fess up to being the thief.
Lars and I had been given the task of moving picnic tables from the community center basement—an area I was very familiar with after Stanley told us we had to clean it to prepare for speed dating…even though speed dating was not held in the basement—to the street in front of the bakery. I didn’t mind the manual labor, but my chest felt like it was caving in every time Lucy was out of sight.
“It’s hard to leave them, especially at first,” Lars said as we loaded up the final picnic table in the back of his truck.
“What?”
He sighed and pushed the strands of hair that had escaped his bun out of his face—a gesture familiar to me. “When we first started courting Olive, I thought I would lose my mind every time we wereapart. It gets easier.” He frowned. “Well, maybe not easier, but the bond means I know she’s happy and safe right now.”
I hadn’t known what to expect from Lucy’s family, but this was much more welcoming—
“Not that I’m saying you should bond her,” he muttered. “And if you hurt her, I will kill you.”
Well, that was more of what I was expecting.
His words echoed in my mind as we finished setting up the tables.The bond means I know she’s happy and safe. My mouth fucking watered, my alpha urging me to pull my omega away from the bakery counter and sink my teeth into her skin.
But Lucy and I would never have that.
I needed to tell her why I would always be on the edge of this pack, no matter how much I wanted her. Fuck, I should have come clean the first time we met. At least if she had rejected me then, I wouldn’t know what she felt like in my arms and tasted like on my lips.
She’d already ruined me. I just hoped I wouldn’t ruinus.
Lars and I were finishing up with the picnic tables when Lucy joined us outside. She’d braided her hair in a crown around her head and looked like a princess.
“It’s almost go time.” Her eyes sparkled as she curled into my side. “Everything looks good.”
“You did an amazing job, sweetheart.”
She glowed with pleasure, and I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Stanley had approved the closure of this section of Main Street so Summer could set up picnic tables in the middle of it, making the area feel like an old-school block party. The bakery itself was an explosion of color, with its yellow awning and the colorful triangle things strung up in the air. A bright flower garland—the one Leo had finished up yesterday before speed dating—hung over the front door.
It wasn’t long before a line formed outside the bakery. Surprisingly, Stanley and his husband, Harry, were first in line, both wearing bright yellow Suns Out Bánhs Out T-shirts.
The afternoon flew by in a blur of loud music, laughter, andendless food. For the first time in years, being around people didn’t feel like work. The citizens of Starlight Grove were meddling and eccentric but also perfectly happy to accept my quiet, grumpy self.
Leo, King, and I spent most of the party together while Lucy was busy helping her friend. The best part of the afternoon by far was watching Blossom torment King. He’d been thrilled when she’d fallen asleep in his arms…until he stood from the picnic table and his button-down shirt fell open. Apparently the naughty bunny had secretly chewed off all of his buttons, leaving his bare chest exposed. Leo and I couldn’t stop laughing, especially when an outraged King placed Blossom on top of the table to lecture her on proper decorum. Instead of looking guilty, her expression was smug as she turned her back on him, no matter how many times he turned her to face him.
I’d never understood how a group of strangers could form a pack just because they all wanted the same omega, but somehow it worked.
Leo and I were still laughing when Lucy wrapped her arms around me from behind. Her plush lips kissed my prickly cheek. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” King muttered as he pulled his shirt together and crossed his arms.
Leo pulled her down between us. “How’s it going?”
